The cedi will stabilise in two weeks-Finance Minister

Ghanaians have been assured that the fast depreciation of the cedi would be stabilised in two weeks.

The assurance was given by the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta on Wednesday in an interview with journalists outside parliament.

The Finance Minister also says the situation will soon improve.

“We have about $300 million coming in from COCOBOD and another $600 million also from COCOBOD in about a month or so. We have officially launched our Eurobond which will be $3 billion and that should close within the next couple of weeks.”

According to him, the challenge of governments over time has been how to structurally balance imports and exports.

He said it would be prudent for government to find some strategies to change its dependence on imports “or else we will always be battling – it doesn’t matter the government,” he added

And “with the type of capital that we are expecting to get in the next few weeks, we really expect a reversal and stability.”

The local currency is still struggling to stabilise against the major international currencies with the US dollar, selling at between ¢5.6 and ¢5.7.

This same period last year, the cedi was sold at 4.42 and ¢4.27 in January 2017, prompting fears that the situation may get worse if long-term measures are not put in place.

Its year-to-date depreciation puts it among the worst-performing currencies in the emerging markets.

The Bank of Ghana’s interbank exchange, as at February 1, shows the cedi had depreciated by 2.6 per cent against the US dollar, compared to the 0.1 per cent appreciation in the same period last year.

Last year, the cedi depreciated by 8.4 per cent against the dollar in what the Central Bank attributed to the strengthening of the US dollar against currencies in emerging and other frontier markets.